ORIGINAL: sigrun
Here's the flaw in your rationale stockdaddy.
Consumption per gallon - less wastage - is a known that will be achieved.
On the other hand, you MAY - if you're both lucky and careful - achieve 200 cycles per LiPo in given BEST best case, quality, most expensive brand ...assuming cells don't go out of balance, the pack doesn't puff up in 10 or 30 cycles as some do, you don't abuse it, you don't damage it by mischarging (plenty of room for snafu there) and you don't crash it turning it into an instant $100 throwaway.
Now here's the REALLY important bit you forgot to mention. To have a reasonable afternoon's flying with an electric model, you need at least 4 LiPos of any particular category, ie: nSnP, capacity, continuous current delivery rating, that fit into a model, as charging at 1C takes approximately 1¼hours PER BATTERY
My numbers were pretty conservative.
In reality, it's been proven you can achieve 500 cycles per battery even charging at 3c on some of the newer packs. That would take your cost for each flight down to 33c a flight. (Yes, I did factor in higher cost for these types of batteries) . Use my previous formula, we only needed to achieve 80 cycles to break even verses the cost of glow fuel. Wait a minute i'm still scared the boogeyman is going to ruin my packs!!! Well some manufactures so have warranties on their packs.
For me having 2 packs per electric plane or a max of 3 packs total is really all I need. At 1C, you are charging 3 packs per hour and I don't fly more than once every 15 mins. With a mix a gas and electric planes, charging times shouldn't be as much of a factor.
If you abuse your packs, yes they can go bad. If you crash your plane, yes it can break along with your lipo. I agree with you there.